Diocese of Berlin and Germany (ROCOR)

In 1924, the Berlin Vicariate was established under the control of the parish manager in Western Europe, Metropolitan Eulogius (George) .

In June 1926, after the Bishops' Council of the ROCOR in Sremski Karlovtsy , the Berlin Vicariate was transformed into an independent diocese led by Bishop Tikhon (Lyashchenko) ^[1] . Almost all Russian Orthodox parishes in Germany found themselves in the jurisdiction of the ROCA.

During the Nazi rule, the German state patronized the German Diocese of the Church Abroad, while using it for propaganda purposes. So, the authorities put pressure on the “Eulogian” parishes that remained in Germany to transfer the latter to the diocese of the Church Abroad. In February 1938, the German leadership demanded that the Bishops' Council appoint an ethnic German Seraphim (Lyade) instead of the current bishop of Berlin and German Tikhon, which was done.

On May 26, 1942, with the consent of the authorities, the Diocese of Berlin and Germany was transformed by the ROCOR Synod into the Central European Metropolitan District, and Archbishop Seraphim (Lyade) became the Metropolitan.

In 1943-1944, the clergy and flocks of the diocese were significantly replenished by “ displaced persons ” from the USSR. Immediately after the end of World War II, there was a wave of transitions of churches that found themselves in the territories occupied by the Soviet army (including in the Soviet zone of German occupation) from the Church Abroad to the Moscow Patriarchate.

In the late 1940s, there was a massive outflow of "displaced persons" into the New World. In the period 1948-1950, the staff of priests of the Berlin and German diocese was reduced by more than half ^[2] . Those who did not manage to travel to other countries due to illness and age and remained in Germany after the disbandment of the camps for displaced persons were difficult to assimilate into German society with a lack of knowledge of the German language and lack of German education diplomas. Russian “displaced persons” in Germany lived in isolation from German society in an atmosphere of a closed national diaspora. They lived with a precarious social status of “foreigners without citizenship,” only partially equated, according to German law, with native Germans and German refugees ^[3] .

According to the Archbishop of Berlin Mark (Arndt), “By the end of the 1980s, our parishes began to virtually disappear, the closure of some parishes was already anticipated. When the borders were opened in 1990, we have seen an increase in parishes and their strengthening ” ^[4] . After the collapse of the USSR, a flood of emigrants from the countries of the former socialist camp poured into Germany. Over the 15 years from the beginning of the 1990s to the second half of the 2000s, more than 300 thousand people arrived from the countries of the former Union. This led to the strengthening of the position of the diocese.

In the 1990s, the diocese in the center of Munich received the building of the former American military church, which, after perestroika, was transformed into the Cathedral of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

Since the 1990s, even before the start of the work of the negotiation commission on the reunification of the Russian Church, meetings of clergy of two parallel dioceses - the Moscow Patriarchate and the ROCA, were regularly held in Germany. At these meetings, “hotly, but always with love,” the most pressing issues were discussed: the proper fulfillment of baptism, the catechesis of Russians and non-Russians, and so on. Thus, the skills of discussions were developed, people recognized each other, which, according to Archbishop Mark, was very useful in the negotiation process. As a result, the Berlin-German diocese of the ROCA became the only one in the ROCA, where not a single cleric went into schism ^[5] .

After the restoration of communion between the Russian Church in the Fatherland and Abroad , Germany was distinguished by a lively and fruitful interaction between the local diocese of the Church Abroad and the diocese directly subordinate to the Patriarchate .

In 2008, a complex of buildings was acquired in Berlin, which, after reconstruction, became the second administrative center of the diocese.

In 2014, a new charter was adopted instead of the obsolete charter of 1936. The charter entered into force on January 1, 2015 ^[6] .

The Diocese of Berlin and Germany is led by the Archbishop of Berlin and Germany, Mark (Arndt) , has more than fifty parishes and two monasteries: the male Rev. Job Pochaevsky in Munich and the female one in honor of the holy Martyr Elizabeth in Buchendorf. In addition, the Stavropegic Benedictine Monastery is subordinate to the ROCA, directly subordinate to the First Hierarch of the ROCA.

The diocese is actively engaged in translating Orthodox literature into German, since 1981 it has been publishing the diocesan journal “The Herald of the German Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad” (“Der Bote”) in Russian and German, and is building and reconstructing many church buildings.

• Tikhon (Lyashchenko) (May 11, 1924 - February 24, 1938)
• Seraphim (Lade) (February 24, 1938 - September 14, 1950) w / o until August 1938
• Alexander (Stalker) (September 14-19, 1950) high school, bishop Kissingen
• Benedict (Bobkovsky) (September 19, 1950 - September 3, 1951)
• Alexander (Stalker) (April 11, 1952 - September 11, 1971)
• Filofei (Narco) (September 14, 1971 - Autumn 1982)
• Mark (Arndt) (since fall 1982)

• Diocese of Berlin and Germany
• Orthodoxy in Germany

• Nikitin A.K. Stages and methods of unification of the Russian Orthodox community in Germany in 1935-1939 // Russian emigration in Europe: 20s – 30s. XX century / Ans. ed. L.V. Ponomareva. - M .: IVI RAS , 1996. - S. 129-164.
• Nikitin A.K. The situation of the Russian Orthodox community in Germany during the Nazi regime (1933-1945) // Annual Theological Conference of the Orthodox St. Tikhon Theological Institute: Materials. - M .: Publishing House of Law. St. Tikhon. blessing Institute , 1998 .-- S. 321-329 .
• Nikitin A.K. Nazi regime and the Russian Orthodox community in Germany (1933-1945). - M .: B.I., 1998 .-- 421 p.
• Nikitin A.K. The situation of the Russian Orthodox community in Germany during the years of the Nazi regime // Socio-economic adaptation of Russian emigrants (late 19th – 20th centuries): Sat. scientific articles. - M .: IRI RAS , 1999 .-- S. 212-228.
• Nikitin A.K. Relations between the Russian Orthodox community in Germany of the Nazi regime (1933-1945) // Theological collection. - M .: PSTBI , 2001. - Issue. 7 . - S. 230—262 .
• Shkarovsky M.V. German diocese during the Second World War // Bulletin of the German diocese of ROCOR. - 2001. - No. 4 . - S. 9 .
• Shkarovsky M.V. German diocese during the Second World War // Bulletin of the German diocese of ROCOR. - 2001. - No. 6 . - S. 40 .
• Shkarovsky M.V. Russian Orthodox Communities in Germany in 1933-1941 // Facts and Versions. Historical and Cultural Almanac. Research and materials. Prince 3: Russian Abroad: politics, economics. The culture. - SPB .: IMISP. - 2002. - S. 88-100
• Artyomov N., prot. Interviews with representatives of the clergy of the two German dioceses (MP and ROCOR) 1993-1997 as the beginning of the restoration of the unity of the Russian Church // XVIII Annual Theological Conference PSTGU: Materials. Volume I. M., PSTGU Publishing House, 2008. 408 pp.
• Kostryukov A. A. The Russian Church Abroad in 1939-1964: Administrative structure and relations with the Church in the Fatherland . - M .: Publishing house PSTGU, 2015 .-- 488 p. - ISBN 978-5-7429-0931-6 .

• The official website of the Diocese of Berlin at www.russian-church.de (German) (English) (Russian)